• Aseel M Almansour and Seter Siziya.
• Department of Statistics, School of Science, King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, KSA.
• Afr Health Sci. 2017 Dec 1; 17 (4): 1172-1177.

Background And ObjectiveSuicide among children has been a major issue and the statistics are considerably alarming. However, no studies have been conducted in Swaziland on suicidal ideation which is a starting point for committing suicide. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of suicidal ideation and its correlates.MethodsA secondary analysis of data was conducted using data collected in a Swaziland 2013 Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS). The survey assessed among other factors, mental health of the students using a self-administered questionnaire. We considered factors that have been reported to be associated with suicidal ideation in the literature. Unadjusted odds ratios (OR) and adjusted odds ratios (AOR) together with their 95 confidence intervals (CI) are reported.ResultsThe overall proportions of students who considered suicide were 18.3% of 1866 females and 15.6% of 1672 males. In bivariate models the risk factors for suicidal ideation were feeling lonely, anxiety, using drugs and smoking marijuana. In multivariate model to include age, gender, food security, close friends, truancy, bullied, attacked, physical fight, drugs, marijuana, parental understanding anxiety and loneliness, all the considered factors were significantly associated with suicide except close friends.ConclusionThe rate of suicidal ideation was high among adolescents in Swaziland and intervention considering violence, social support from friends and parents, and drug abuse should be designed to prevent suicidal thoughts.

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